My 2nd Boxee arrived, with a Netflix button instead of play/pause

[twistybox]

What would a company like LoveFILM think to bringing an app out on a box that has a huge Netflix button on it?

Umm, how about "who cares?" I'm playing devil's advocate, but most other streaming services aren't even bit players when compared to Netflix.

Boxee wants to be where the money is. If the Netflix logo means a source of measurable income, then that's good news for them. You can be sure the logo wasn't added to splash up the color on the remote face.

That logo means dollars.

But I do agree, it makes what was already a bad remote quite a bit worse. The best place for the Boxee remote is in a drawer somewhere for emergency/backup use.

[AoiB]

Hating the button, as I got it in second boxee box I bought.

I am returning it tomorrow. Having the old one, makes using this new one a pain.

[jt45]

Doesn't the select button pause/play as well ? Is it that bad to learn to hit select instead ? Maybe the new firmware update will address some of these remote issues and the new remote just hit the market before before the update.

[lateralex]

Amazon has another replacement Boxee on the way, and assured that the mix-up won't happen on this one. I wish I knew if they accidentally released the new version early, or if they found a few of the 'old' ones lying around for me. Fingers crossed they even understood what I was talking about, and didn't just send me the same thing again.

[srinaths]

Is Boxee Box with Netflix button comes with new H/W revision A4? My Box also contain Netflix button!

[darcilicious]

Is Boxee Box with Netflix button comes with new H/W revision A4?

One other poster with the Netflix-labeled remote stated that they have the A4 revision Box also.

[AminB]

If Boxee puts Navi-X on the remote , then I'll get a new remote!

[Event Horizon]

I can confirm that the a4 revision has the netflix button. I picked mine up at Futureshop mid October. I was not aware that it was so rare. Having the dedicated button has not bothered me too much. However, not having a pause button on the remote has certainly not helped the 'wife' acceptance factor. I figured out how using trial and error, she uses the delegation interface to pause the video.

[srinaths]

I can confirm that the a4 revision has the netflix button. I picked mine up at Futureshop mid October. I was not aware that it was so rare. Having the dedicated button has not bothered me too much. However, not having a pause button on the remote has certainly not helped the 'wife' acceptance factor. I figured out how using trial and error, she uses the delegation interface to pause the video.

Dedicated Netflix button introduces an additional two more clicks! Let's hope, developers will comes up with an option to choose particular task for this Netflix button.

[Ronald]

Doesn't the select button pause/play as well ?

No. It just brings up a menu, overlaid on the video, which continues to play.

In that menu you can move a highlight cursor to a pause icon and then press select again, so as to pause the video. But while doing this the video has played on. And you will have to repeat this procedure later to make the playback resume.

Is it that bad to learn to hit select instead ?

Not if it worked like a direct pause button, but since it doesn't work that way your point is moot. And changing it to work that way is not an option, since that usage is in conflict with its current uses.

What should be done is simply to make the media player code accept the normal 'Spacebar' key as an alternative to the 'Pause/Break' key. (The pause button of the old remote is implemented as a 'Pause/Break' keycode.) Nearly all PC media players accept the spacebar as a pause command (and many even ignore the real Pause/Break key). So it would be very logical to implement the space key for pausing the media player of Boxee as well.

But unfortunately they haven't done this yet, so at present the "Pause/Break" key is the only one that will directly pause a Boxee media player, and on the new remote that key is apparently not implemented.

Maybe the new firmware update will address some of these remote issues and the new remote just hit the market before before the update.

That is possible, but would also be insane.
(By the Boxee Team I mean...)

It would be dead easy, a matter of mere minutes of coding, to add a new pause function using some other button on the keyboard side of the remote, such as the spacebar button. (Just another 'elseif' clause following the 'if' clause for the current 'Pause/Break' keycode.) And this would then work equally well regardless of whether one uses an old or a new remote. So there would be no sensible reason to delay such an update.

Best regards: Ronald